The Training

The back of the inn opened into a small, beaten-down training yard.

The air was cold, the morning sun still a weak promise behind the jagged peaks in the distance. Aki stood in the center of the yard, the fine, Grey katana already formed in his hand.

He moved, a blur of motion that was both graceful and brutally efficient.

The blade cut through the air with a silent hiss, each swing a testament to a lifetime of training he couldn’t fully remember.

But his mind was not as clear as his movements. With every practiced slice, a storm of questions raged within him.

“Should I be like this?” he thought, glancing at the monstrously beautiful weapon that was a part of his own body.

“Am I just another beast?”

He parried an imaginary foe, his footwork perfect on the uneven ground.

“Can I do this alone? "

The faces of Rika and Mia flashed in his mind, one a memory of innocent laughter, the other a memory of a warm, impossible smile.

His form faltered for a fraction of a second.

“Mia-San…”

The name was a whisper in his own mind, a prayer to someone he couldn’t find.

“Can you… Can you trust me that much? Wasn’t I the sinner who couldn’t protect you when it mattered most?”

He gritted his teeth, frustration and self-loathing bubbling up from his core. He channeled it into his practice, his movements becoming faster, more violent.

He needed to be stronger. Strong enough to protect, strong enough to find them, strong enough to end everything.

Suddenly, his weapon flared. A brilliant, blinding divine aura erupted from the blade, coating it in a holy, golden light. It was beautiful. And it was agonizing.

A scream tore from his lips as a wave of grievous pain shot up his arm, consuming his entire being.

It felt as if every cell in his body was being torn apart and forcibly rewritten by a power he could not control.

His body was shattering. The divine aura pulsed violently, each wave bringing a fresh surge of torment.

The ground around him cracked under the pressure, the grass withering into black ash.

The very world seemed to recoil from the raw, untamed power pouring out of him.

He collapsed to one knee, the katana still clutched in his hand, his blood beginning to spill from his skin, a horrifying view of crimson against the golden light.

He was losing control. He was going to be consumed by this thing inside him.

Then, he heard it. A faint, desperate echo from the deepest part of his memory.

“Oni-chan…”

Rika’s voice. It was the anchor in his storm of pain. The memory of his sister, the promise he had made to her and Mia, became a shield against the agony.

He focused on that single point of light in his darkness, fighting back against the tide. He would not break. He couldn’t.

The door to the inn burst open. “Kid! What’s going on out”

The inn owner, Kyo, froze in the doorway, his eyes wide with shock. He saw Aki, kneeling in a crater of his own making, bathed in a terrifying light and covered in blood.

Forgetting his own safety, Kyo rushed to his side. “Easy, kid, easy! You have to calm down! Fight it!”

Kyo’s voice barely registered, but it was another anchor. Aki focused, dragging the raging divine power back into himself, forcing it into submission.

The golden light receded, and the immense pressure vanished. The pain subsided, leaving only a deep, trembling exhaustion. Aki slumped forward, unconscious.

Kyo, without hesitation, carried Aki back into the inn and laid him on a bed. As he began to clean the wounds and apply bandages, he noticed something impossible.

The deep gashes and tears in Aki’s skin were closing on their own, leaving behind unmarked skin as if they had never been.

Kyo stared, completely amazed. “What in the world are you, kid?”

A few hours later, Aki’s eyes fluttered open.

The sharp, coppery smell of his own blood was gone, replaced by the scent of clean linen and drying herbs. He sat up, his body sore but whole.

Kyo was sitting in a chair by the window, watching him.

“I am okay,” Aki said, his voice a low rasp. With a sad face, he added,

“I will pay for the damages and the inconvenience.”

Kyo shook his head, a wry smile on his face. “No need of money, kid. I think you are going through a lot. Just calm down, take life easy.”

Aki looked at the old man. In a world that had shown him nothing but coldness and cruelty, this stranger had rushed into a storm of divine energy to help him.

For the first time in a long time, Aki felt a flicker of warmth. He found himself explaining his situation, the words spilling out before he could stop them.

“My grandfather was killed,” Aki said, his voice flat and devoid of emotion. “After that, I met a girl. With my sister, Rika, she was… everything to me. Until she vanished away with my sister.”

Kyo listened patiently, his expression never changing. When Aki finished, the old man sighed, a sound heavy with the weight of years.

“So you’re chasing ghosts.”

Aki’s head snapped up, his eyes flashing with anger.

Kyo met his gaze without fear. “After having this conversation,” the old man said, his voice quiet, “I should at least mention my name. I am Kishiko Kyo.”

He leaned forward. “Kid, you are experiencing a lot of bloodshed at this moment. All this bloodshed… I know it well.”

Kyo’s eyes seemed to look past Aki, into a memory of his own. “Let me tell you something. All this bloodshed and cold killing intent from you… it will not make the loved ones return.”

“You don’t know everything, old man,” Aki said, his voice laced with ice.

Kyo met his gaze without fear. He fell silent for a long moment, truly looking at the boy before him. He saw the cold fire of vengeance in Aki’s eyes, a look he knew intimately.

He had seen it in his own reflection in the mirror every morning for years. But in Aki, it was different—wilder, deeper.

Kyo also couldn’t ignore the impossible reality he had just witnessed: a boy whose grievous, bloody wounds had vanished without a trace.

This wasn’t just a boy bent on revenge; this was something else entirely.

“You’re right, I don’t,” Kyo said finally, his voice softer now.

“But I know that look. It’s the look of a man who has lost his world and thinks revenge is the only thing left to build from the ashes. I know it, because I lived with it.”

This was the bridge between them. Not just shared loss, but a shared path.

“Kid, you are experiencing a lot of bloodshed at this moment. All this bloodshed… I know it well.”

Kyo’s eyes seemed to look past Aki, into a memory of his own. “Let me tell you something. All this bloodshed and cold killing intent from you… it will not make the loved ones return.”

“In our life, no one knows everything,” Kyo replied softly. “I, too, had one. One who loved me to the fullest. After her death, I don’t know what to do with my life.”

Kyo’s gaze drifted towards the window, a profound sadness in his eyes. “She was beautiful, do you know?” he said, more to himself than to Aki.

“Our life was great and bright. Until the day… she was taken by the Ayla Guard.”

Aki’s anger faltered, replaced by a stunned silence.

“I thought I lost my only hope,” Kyo continued, his voice thick with emotion.

“I could have taken revenge. Hunted them down one by one.” He looked at his own hands. “But she wouldn’t have liked that. She hated violence. So, I stayed.”

He looked around the simple room. “I’ve been living in the same room she lived in, fifteen years ago. I keep it clean. Just the way she liked it.”

Aki listened silently to the old man, his own pain echoing in Kyo’s story. Revenge was a fire that had been driving him, but for what? He thought of Mia’s gentle smile.

“I want to understand,” Aki said, his voice barely a whisper.

“This love that Mia-San said to me…”

He stood up, the weariness gone from his body, replaced by a cold, sharp clarity. “I am not good with emotions,” he stated, his gaze hard as steel.

“But I will not allow the world to get shattered by those fuckers, who were playing with divinity.”

His voice grew stronger, each word a vow.

“This will all be over soon, old man. All this beast attacks, the thugs, and the fear will be soon over.”

He looked Kyo in the eye, his own chilling resolve reflected in his gaze.

“I will end that.”

Kyo looked at the boy before him, a boy who spoke of ending the world’s suffering as casually as one might speak of ending a journey.

He saw the immense power and the immense pain warring within him.

“If that is your path, then be aware of The Three,” Kyo said, his voice low and serious.

“The people say the King has ears everywhere.”

Aki nodded. “Thank you for everything, old man.”

He turned towards the door, his purpose renewed. “I will find Mia-San and my sister as soon as I reach the Shattered Peak.” He paused, his hand on the door, and added, his voice a cold, strong mutter,

“I will find them and save them.”

He stepped out of the inn and didn’t look back. His preparation was complete;

the next stage of his journey was about to begin. He walked through the now-bustling town, a lone, determined figure moving towards the distant, shattered mountains.

The journey would be long and perilous.

He knew this.

But he was ready.

He took his first step out of the town’s gate, leaving what little safety it offered behind for the unforgiving wilderness that led to the peaks.

Just as his foot touched the wild earth, he froze.

A whisper.

It was soft, impossibly clear, and carried on the wind from no discernible direction.

It was a voice he thought he would never hear again outside of his dreams, tender and filled with a love that defied distance.

" I will be waiting, Aki…”

He whipped around, his eyes scanning the trees, the road, the sky.

There was nothing.

No one. Just the wind and the silence.

“Was it a memory? A trick of his grief-stricken mind? Or was it a promise?”

Aki stood there for a long moment, the chilling, hopeful whisper echoing in his soul, before he turned back towards the mountains, his pace faster and more determined than ever.